Shinkyu "James" Lee

(he/him/his)

  • Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics

Areas of Study

Education

  • PhD, political science & peace studies, University of Notre Dame

  • MA, political science, University of Notre Dame

  • MDiv, Harvard University

  • MLitt, social anthropology of religion, University of Aberdeen

  • BTh, Hanshin University

Biography

Shinkyu Lee is a visiting assistant professor of politics. He holds a PhD from the joint program of the Department of Political Science and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His research topics include international political theory, political theology, and East Asian political thought. His work has been published in Polity, the European Journal of Political Theory, the Journal of International Political Theory, the Korean Review of Political Thought, the Journal of Religious EthicsInternational Politics, and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies. He is currently preparing a book manuscript on Hannah Arendt's ideas of peace.

A former soldier, seminarian, and NGO worker, Lee emphasizes the close relationship between theoretical ideas and the real world of politics in his teaching. He has previously taught at Butler University, DePaul University, Harvard University, and Notre Dame. At Oberlin, he teaches political theory courses on ideologies, violence, human rights, and authority. 

  • “The Political vs. the Theological: The Scope of Secularity in Arendtian Forgiveness,” Journal of Religious Ethics 50, no.4 (2022): 670-695. 
  • “The Real Promise of Federalism: A Case Study of Arendt’s International Thought,” European Journal of Political Theory 21, no.3 (2022): 539–560.
  • “Hannah Arendt and International Relations,” in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies, ed. Nukhet Sandal (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.665 (14,035 words).
  • “Building Communities of Peace: Arendtian Realism and Peacebuilding,” Polity 53, no.1 (2021): 75–100.
  • “The Lex of the Earth? Arendt’s Critique of Roman Law,” Journal of International Political Theory 17, no.3 (2021): 394–411.
  • “Hannah Arendt’s International Agonism,” Korean Review of Political Thought 27, no.2 (2021): 215–244.
  • “Freedom, the State, and War: Hegel’s Challenge to World Peace,” International Politics 54, no.2 (2017): 203–220.

Fall 2023

Political Ideas and Ideologies — POLT 233
Political Violence — POLT 337

Spring 2024

Authority and Rule: An Introductory Survey — POLT 136
Politics after Religion? A Search for Political Authority — POLT 237